Quotes!

Once again, not enough time for a long entry, my friends-though fortunately, I’m just barely on time! 😀 XD While I’ve gotten through the readings I hope to get through for this week, I have a LOT more to take care of–I need to read like 40 books within 10 days! D: Thus, I’m just gonna go easy and give you a bit of a sedate entry tonight. Here are a few quotes I really liked that I came across in my readings:

“A great part of both the strength and the weakness of our national existence lies in the fact that Americans do not abide very quietly the evils of life.”

-Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform, p. 16.

“The dialectic of history is full of odd and cunningly contrived ironies, and among these are rebellions waged only that the rebels might in the end be converted into their opposites.”

-Hofstadter, Age of Reform, p. 130.

“The forces of traditionalism were narrow in outlook, primitive in economic theory, and well protected by an enormous and passive constituency. Most important, the advocates of the ‘sound dollar’ possessed all of the commanding heights in culture–the nation’s press, the universities, the banks, and the churches. Collectively, they had power.

“The forces of reform, on the other hand, deployed several regiments of stump speakers, a thousand weekly newspaper editors, and a sizable constituency that carried strong but receding memories of the Alliance cooperative crusade. Collectively, they had hope.

“It was not a balanced contest.”

-Lawrence Goodwyn, The Populist Moment, p. 212.

“To undo Tillman’s reconstruction of white supremacy requires us to not only challenge the consequences of his actions but also to understand the words and ideas that he used and the sources of their power. Only that understanding can provide the basis for a real reconstruction of American democracy.”